MESCALERO, N.M. — A group of descendants of legendary Apache leader Geronimo is trying to intervene in a lawsuit from another descendant who wants Geronimo’s remains moved from Oklahoma to New Mexico.
A lawyer for the Fort Sill Apaches of Oklahoma, Phillip Thompson, said the tribe and 18 members of Lariat Geronimo’s family filed motions Tuesday to intervene in the case.
Harlyn Geronimo of Mescalero filed a lawsuit in February seeking to move the remains from Fort Sill to southwestern New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness.
Both Lariat Geronimo and Harlyn Geronimo say they are great-grandsons of Geronimo, who died Feb. 17, 1909, as a prisoner of war in Oklahoma and was buried at Fort Sill.
Harlyn Geronimo filed his lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on the 100th anniversary of Geronimo’s death. He has said Apache custom is to bury a person near his or her birthplace. Lariat Geronimo said nomadic Apaches buried their dead in various sites, and it’s better to leave the remains undisturbed.
Fort Sill Apache Tribe Chairman Jeff Houser said if there is no consensus between the two branches of the family, "we’d assert it’s the tribe’s responsibility to make such decisions.”
The tribe is successor tribe to the Chiricahua tribe to which Geronimo belonged.
Some of Geronimo’s descendants now live in the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s land, which is in central New Mexico.
After the families of Geronimo and other Apache warriors were captured and sent to Florida, Geronimo and 35 warriors surrendered to Gen. Nelson A. Miles near the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1886. Geronimo eventually was sent to Fort Sill.
by the associated press
A lawyer for the Fort Sill Apaches of Oklahoma, Phillip Thompson, said the tribe and 18 members of Lariat Geronimo’s family filed motions Tuesday to intervene in the case.
Harlyn Geronimo of Mescalero filed a lawsuit in February seeking to move the remains from Fort Sill to southwestern New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness.
Both Lariat Geronimo and Harlyn Geronimo say they are great-grandsons of Geronimo, who died Feb. 17, 1909, as a prisoner of war in Oklahoma and was buried at Fort Sill.
Harlyn Geronimo filed his lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on the 100th anniversary of Geronimo’s death. He has said Apache custom is to bury a person near his or her birthplace. Lariat Geronimo said nomadic Apaches buried their dead in various sites, and it’s better to leave the remains undisturbed.
Fort Sill Apache Tribe Chairman Jeff Houser said if there is no consensus between the two branches of the family, "we’d assert it’s the tribe’s responsibility to make such decisions.”
The tribe is successor tribe to the Chiricahua tribe to which Geronimo belonged.
Some of Geronimo’s descendants now live in the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s land, which is in central New Mexico.
After the families of Geronimo and other Apache warriors were captured and sent to Florida, Geronimo and 35 warriors surrendered to Gen. Nelson A. Miles near the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1886. Geronimo eventually was sent to Fort Sill.
by the associated press
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